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In memory of Richard Allen.
PORTLAND — It’s time for a confession.
For a decade I’ve covered the Oregon Ducks with only a small, selective circle of people actually knowing the truth: I, Tyson Alger, grew up a Huskies fan.
Before falling over your skis, hear me out. It wasn’t the purple and gold, or the location, or an affinity for Don James or Rick Neuheisel or that freaking siren they fire off after touchdowns that becomes increasingly alarming in this political climate.
It was as simple as this: They’re the first team I remember watching. It’s a foggy memory, but I think it was the 2000 Rose Bowl — could have been the 1999 Holiday Bowl — and I was at my Grandpa’s apartment in Anchorage. He had cable — we didn’t — which meant that for one of the rare times in my life I had access to TV that wasn’t watched through the snowstorm of bunny ears. I watched Mariners games there with him. I watched Wayne Gretzky’s last game in the NHL there with him. And in this particular memory, I remember him telling me all about Marques Tuiasosopo, explaining what a false start was and why teams would suddenly kick it on fourth down. (More on that later.)
For a kid who moved from Washington to Alaska when he was seven and always felt like a bit of an outsider — could have been skipping a grade; could have been the XXL hockey jerseys and sweatpants at school phase — getting to watch sports and listen to stories from Grandpa had me hooked.
When my grandparents moved to Palmer, I’d ride my bike three miles along farming roads to get to their place in the Equestrian Acres subdivision. I’d mow their lawn for $20, then spend the rest of the afternoon watching baseball with Grandpa. Then I’d bike back, and he’d redo the lawn because my lines weren’t straight enough.
Then, of course, life happened. I moved away for college in 2007, didn’t call much and haven’t even been back up to Alaska since 2016. But Grandpa was always pretty good with technology, so every place I’ve been, from Montana to Hawaii and now to Portland, he’d email or text about the teams I was covering. He rarely missed an Oregon game.
He was a Day 1 subscriber of mine at The Athletic and here at The I-5 Corridor, and did it ever tickle me to get emails like this:
And texts like these:
And to have moments like this when, after 21 years of watching bad baseball together, we finally saw our Mariners make the playoffs:
Richard Allen died on Sunday. He was 89. Cancer robbed the quality out of most of the final year of his life, as did the Mariners payroll constraints. While I wish I had a better kicker to this intro, there is a Game 7 about to start. Watching and getting angry about how far the Mariners have to go feels like a more productive way to spend my grief today than remembering this will be one of my first stories he’ll never read.
To the mailbag!
The Oregon Ducks must have a bunch of fans with short term memory or a younger fan base than I’m willing to admit. Isn’t Dan Lanning’s decision making similar to Chip Kelly? Most importantly, what advice are you giving to fans standing on the cliff’s edge and ready to fire Lanning? — Wade Clack
I realize the second part of this question would have had more significance had I turned this in the immediacy of the Washington loss, however my advice would be: Oregon is No. 8 in the country. We can totally have critical conversations about Lanning’s in-game decisions, but that’s about the only thing to harp on considering Lanning’s two years on the job.
In stabilizing a program abandoned by yet another coach, Lanning’s shown he can recruit and he can hire. His defense has improved from a season ago and, yes, from now until eternity, every time there’s a fourth down everyone in the building will crack their knuckles and give each other a knowing nod.
“I’m going to be aggressive to win games,” Lanning said last week.
And you’re right, Wade. This isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel. Let me take you all back to a little place I like to call 2010, a time when Oregon coaches were generating entries on Urban Dictionary and signs for College GameDay had a slightly NSFW edge to them.
All of this, of course, was due to Oregon’s second-year coach’s propensity to gamble on fourth down.
“It’s just, can we make it? And if we can make it, then we’re probably going to go for it,” is how Kelly described his approach to the LA Times in 2019.
And while it was a calling card for the entire Kelly era, 2010 was the peak. Oregon faced fourth down 94 times that season, went for it 34 times and converted it 22 times (64.71%). For those scoring at home, that means Kelly’s Ducks went for it on fourth down an average of 2.61 times per game.
Here in 2023, Dan Lanning’s Ducks are going for it an average of 1.85 times per game and converting it at a 62 percent clip. The main difference between him and Kelly being that, when Kelly’s 2010 Ducks failed to convert a pair of fourth downs against the Huskies, it had little impact on No. 1 Oregon’s 53-16 win.
What do you think are going to be Oregon’s most difficult games left in the regular season, ranked in order from hardest to easiest? — Jason McCleary
1. Oregon State: The Beavers have a great defense, a great running back, a great offensive line, a great head coach and a passing game that has taken large strides since the Beavers’ lone loss at Washington State.
In Oregon State’s three wins since Pullman, D.J. Uiagalelei has completed 64 percent of his passes for eight touchdowns and one interception while averaging 10.1 yards per attempt. There is not a more complete team on the schedule.
2. At Utah: The part of me that saw Oregon State control that game with Utah a few weeks ago in Corvallis wants to say that the Ducks are going to paste the Utes on Saturday. Yes, Utah clipped USC, but I don’t see Bryson Barnes throwing for three touchdowns and leading the Utes to 34 points against this Ducks defense.
That being said, we’re giving a lot of points for the degree of difficulty playing a Kyle Whittingham team in Salt Lake this late in the season can be.
3. USC:
4. At Arizona State: Kenny Dillingham is going to be a good coach for Arizona State. I get a kick out of watching his weekly media availabilities. And damn, do his Sun Devils play hard — they nearly clipped Washington Saturday up in Seattle. They did an awfully good job of limiting Washington’s big-play offense, but I have the feeling the efficiency of Oregon’s offense is just going to pick the Sun Devils apart. Kenny’s going to get them there, it’s just not this year.
5. Cal: While it wouldn’t shock me if Cal pulls an upset on Saturday against USC at home, there’s just not a lot threatening about this game for the Ducks next week. It’s a 2:30 p.m. kickoff against a team with a decent offense, OK defense and above average head coach. Milquetoast.
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel the Ducks may go undefeated the rest of the season, including the conference championship in Las Vegas? — Brad Halverson
Do I think Oregon can win the rest of its games? Yes.
Do I think Oregon can win a rematch with Washington on a neutral field? Yes.
Do I think both of those things will happen? Maybe.
I’m convinced this Oregon team is the second best Oregon team I’ve covered. They’re more dynamic on offense than the 2019 team, healthier than the 2015 team and far less distracted at the top than the 2021 team.
They’re not as good as the 2014 team. The 2014 team also lost on a random Thursday night to a very OK Arizona team. In other words, I’m not placing any bets.
Not Football related, but with the messy Damian Lillard divorce in its preliminary stages; what will the narrative be afterwards about Lillard off the court? Considering the bombshell his now former spouse revealed in her filing this week? — Bryan
I’m honored that you’d come to The I-5 Corridor for that hot Blazers gossip.
Lillard will get a very long, very deserved standing ovation when the Bucks come to Portland on Feb. 6. Had the trade limbo gone on longer and been allowed to get messier, maybe that wouldn’t be the case. But as for Dame and the city of Portland are concerned, everything worked out this summer before reaching that James Harden-like point of no return. For the sake of his legacy, he better hope he wins a title though.
As for the actual divorce, it’s not like Lillard is the first player accused of having a different image than the one displayed publicly.
As we saw with the Oregon game, coaching is really important in football, probably the most of any major team sports. Can you rank where you think the importance of coaching ranks in the major teams sports? — Kevin P.
1. NFL Football: The players are so good and the margins are so tight, coaching decisions can sway games here more than any other sport.
2. College Football: Very close to the NFL, but there are far more games where talent mismatches take a lot of do-or-die coaching decisions out of the game. It magnifies the ones that do happen, however.
3. College basketball: It’s the job for those who think college football coaches aren’t controlling enough.
4. MLB manager, after the seventh inning: Until they have to start juggling the bullpen, they’re just a guy in pajamas with a good seat.
5. NBA coach: The NBA coach has to at least have the appearance of effectiveness, otherwise who else would LeBron blame when things go wrong?
6. Soccer coach: I mean, if Ted Lasso can do it.
7. NHL coach: Someone has to slap asses and say, “Let’s go boys!”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
